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Leave No Virtual Trace: Thanks to social media sharing, mobile phones are now weapons of mass wildland
destruction

New ethics needed to address Internet-enabled mobbing of natural areas

Entry 21: April 15, 2018

By Chris Carvalho

Less than a quarter-century ago, recreationists had only
paper maps, guidebooks, and word of mouth to discover new places to visit.[1]
A few online articles were beginning to appear.
Then the Internet snowballed. In 2018 smartphones are almost universal, putting cameras, data access, global
positioning, search engines, and instant social media sharing in the hands of
nearly every tourist and hiker. This
profound change has made it possible to show a sensitive landscape to a
multitude of people at the push of a button, complete with driving instructions.
The Internet’s viral quality of unlimited replication can multiply one
picture to millions of copies and views in a few days.
As a result, delicate places have become overrun by selfie-snapping
visitors eager to document their trip to a cadre of virtual “followers.”
The integration of these technologies into smartphones has weaponized our
mobile devices into tools for wildland destruction.

Before the arrival of the Internet and smartphones, we had
to do real research to find places to enjoy solitude and the beauty of nature.
It cost us money and time to do it, and those costs put a brake on
visitation impact that kept wildland overuse in check.
In today’s world, finding information is fast and free thanks to search
engines such as Google, whose original motto of “Don’t be evil” was
dropped in 2015.[2]
Libraries, bookstores, and hiking clubs used to be where we went to
gather hiking trip ideas. Now, they
are largely irrelevant.

Readers shouldn’t get the impression of a conspiracy
here. What’s happened is that a
number of enabling technologies were invented and combined over a relatively
short time period. These
developments had the unintended consequence of greatly multiplying the number of
people who can advertise and promote the beauty of a natural site to a hungry
public anxious to find new destinations, and it’s happened at a speed that far
exceeds anything we might have imagined.

If we consider the rapid pace of change in only 25 years in
the timeline below, the next 25 years could thrust us into a situation where
serious damage to wild places may be irreversible.
We need to take action now before it’s too late.

What can be done to address the problem?
Hikers now consider mobile phones the Eleventh Essential to summon help
in an emergency. What’s missing is
guidance on limiting the impact from social media sharing.
We need a new addition to the code of outdoor ethics, part of what we
know as the Leave No Trace principles. The
idea of “Leave no Virtual Trace” with the hashtag #LNVT is that new ethic.
We need it because it’s no longer enough to hike, bike, or ride our
stock responsibly and with minimal physical impact.
Even when we clean up after others, we need to take responsibility for
the real-world impact of sharing our experience online, because we can’t be
sure what others might do if they visit a spot based on our social media
posting. Leave No Virtual Trace
means, “Don’t post photos, routes, or coordinates on social media of any place that
would be harmed by increased visitation.”
The slogan isn’t my creation; it came from a fellow member of an online
hiking discussion forum who suggested it in a thread I opened on this topic.[3]

I shared this idea with Dana Watts, the executive director of the Leave No Trace
Institute for Outdoor Ethics. Her response was measured, believing that no
new principles beyond what's currently adopted are needed. Rather, she
felt social media sharing can be related to the organization's existing
principles of Leave What
You Find and Be Considerate of Other Visitors. I don't think this approach is enough to meaningfully create
the changes that are needed. I've included her response below in the Appendix.

Other measures that might help include the following:

Advance warning by land managers that overused areas will be
closed or visitation restricted if social media sharing isn’t curtailed,
followed up with action if warnings are ineffective.

Incorporating the Leave No Virtual Trace principle into the
ethical code of the Leave No Trace Center for Outdoor Ethics (http://lnt.org/).

Standard signage that’s used worldwide at sensitive sites to
advise visitors to curtail posting on social media.

Government and conservation groups could create an open database
of areas with excessive impact. Social
media companies could check the location of posts against the database and warn
the poster of the risks and consequences of sharing, as well as remove geotags
from posted photos.

Public education campaigns to make people more aware of how social
media sharing can damage habitat, and ask users to go back through their
timelines and take down photos of overused areas to reduce future impacts.

An aggressive campaign of charging access fees at overused areas
to discourage visitation, with fee dollars devoted to site restoration and
construction of new trails to spread out the impact

Voters and conservation groups can put pressure on elected
officials to restore lost funding for land preservation and recreation
development.

Land managers should work with social media companies to enable
donations from within applications when sensitive sites are being viewed to
create a new funding source for protection and restoration efforts.

Discouraging people from posting GPS tracks of routes that aren't on
established trails. Most land managers ban unauthorized trail
construction, but a GPS track can do as much damage through the repetitive
trampling of multiple visitors following it.

Principles
of Leave No Virtual Trace #LNVT:

1. Don’t geotag photos you share.

2. Don’t post photos on social
media of any place that would be harmed by increased visitation.

3. Only post routes or tracks following maintained trails.

4. Preserve solitude by keeping it to yourself so it will be there in the
future.

5. Politely let others on social media know when their actions
contribute to overuse of recreation sites.

6. Hike device-free and enjoy
the moment.

7. Think about the consequences of posting photos; the
damage they do could be far more than anticipated.

8. Remember that when
photos or videos are shared they can multiply views and visitors
uncontrollably. Fame is not worth the damage that could result to a
fragile area.

As little as ten years ago, recreation officials were worried that hiking was in
decline and would never recover, forcing funding cutbacks and reducing the
acreage of protected land. In some
ways we can be thankful that the rise of social media has produced the opposite
problem: too many users.
Unfortunately funding cutbacks did arrive, courtesy of governments that
have diverted taxpayer dollars from public lands to other wasteful expenditures.

Social media sharing can be good when it rallies public
support to protect threatened habitat. What’s
lacking today is a nuanced understanding of when to use it properly and when to
turn off the smartphone in the interest of keeping secrets a secret.
The lure of online popularity is a calculated enticement that social
media companies use to eliminate any discretion on the part of those who post.
I’m not optimistic that people will learn to resist that temptation.

While some argue that sharing photos is harmless and it’s
irresponsible people who do the damage, it’s important to realize that a
considerate hiker who leaves no physical trace yet shares the experience online
opens a door to impact from any number of users who might view the post and
visit later. Social media sharing
makes us feel isolated from the impacts of many who follow our footsteps in the
future, but that’s a false perception. Opponents
of leaving no virtual trace say no one should control the actions of others
because it violates one’s personal freedom and responsibility.
Yet, most ethical hikers would never invite a group of strangers along on
our trip, expecting no harm will come from it.
Even if we don’t see the impact from sharing on the day of our trip, a
year later it will be obvious what happened.
It’s precisely because we
can’t control others’ actions that it’s not wise to post our photos
online.

Another argument I’ve heard is that asking people to not
post will encourage the opposite as an act of defiance.
I’m not convinced. Most of
us obey “do not photograph” policies at museums, concerts, and other events.
Museums originally said it was to limit fading from flash photography,
but most cameras today are so sensitive that flash isn’t used any more.
The real purpose of these policies is to get people to pay to attend in
person. Asking the same thing of
hikers in order to limit impact is a more noble justification and it would
likely be quite effective.

We need to consider that there have been many threats to
wild areas: motorized travel, logging, litter, livestock, energy development,
mining, housing, etc. When each was
new it wasn't believed to be a problem but when it reached critical mass, the
threat was recognized and required regulation to keep it controlled. The impact
of Internet social media is quite possibly another in this long line of threats.
It's still early, but the Internet's rapid pace of advancement is forcing us to
recognize the problem quickly and respond before it's too late. Hopefully
ethics rather than regulation can be the solution, but history says otherwise.
Because solitude is a resource worth protecting, we all must learn to
Leave No Virtual Trace.

While
You Were Out Hiking

A timeline of
developments contributing to social media’s impact on natural areas

This topic has been front and center lately for many
people, including Leave No Trace. My colleague Ben Lawhon responded recently to
a similar request for the creation of an 8th principle that would directly
address social media. This response accurately captures The Center's position on
the issue and I hope is helpful:

Thank you for your support of Leave No Trace, and for
your email regarding the use, and potential consequences, of social media. This
is an issue that we have been hearing more and more about over the past year,
and it’s something that we’re actively working to address.

There is little question that social media plays a
role in promotion of various outdoor locations, and in some cases, has led to
significant biophysical and social impacts. It’s logical to ask, “Would
this place be as impacted as it is now had it not been for Instagram, Facebook,
Twitter, or Pintrest?”[sic] Social media, like any tool or technology, can be a
force for good or it can have the opposite effect. What if every social media
post also included a message of stewardship? Think how different things would or
could be if this were the case.

As technologies have evolved over the past 15 years we
have explored the potential impact to the outdoors, and in some cases, have
addressed such issues with Leave No Trace. For example, in the early 2000s when
handheld GPS units were made more accurate, more reasonably priced, and smaller,
there was justifiable concern about how these devices, and associated activities
such as geocaching, could potentially impact the outdoors. Another example dates
back to 2013 when drones began appearing on (or above) public lands. Drones are
relatively inexpensive and easy to fly. As such, there were genuine and valid
concerns about the use of such devices on public lands, which can impact
solitude and wildlife, and present privacy and safety concerns. A final example
from just a few weeks ago involves the use of personal locator beacons such as
the SPOT or the ARC ResQLink, which can be life-saving devices or lead to
costly, impactful, and unnecessary rescue operations where the user has simply
run out of beer. In each case, we have been asked to provide specific Leave No
Trace guidance by adding additional Principles. In some cases, we have provided
guidance (geocaching/GPS use) under the existing Principles and in others
we’re still working on the most appropriate strategy for addressing issues
arising from such rapidly evolving technology.

Because the current incarnation of the 7 Leave No
Trace Principles have been in place for nearly 20 years, we don’t take
discussions of significant changes lightly. Such discussions are imperative at
times but also need to be strategic, thoughtful, and measured. In the case of
addressing appropriate use of social media, we feel that it is possible and
necessary to tailor existing Leave No Trace information for this purpose rather
than creating a new Principle out of whole cloth. There are two current Leave No
Trace Principles under which social media can be addressed: Leave What
You Find and Be Considerate of Other Visitors. For each
Principle, the message about social media will encourage outdoor enthusiasts to
stop and think about their actions and the potential consequences of posting
pictures, GPS data, detailed maps, etc. to social media. Furthermore, we urge
people to think about both the protection and sustainability of the resource and
the visitors who come after them. We generally refrain from explicitly telling people
what to do in the outdoors, especially in the context of more ethical issues
such as the use of social media. The primary reason for this is that Leave No
Trace isn't black or white, right or wrong. It's a framework for making good
decisions about enjoying the outdoors responsibly, regardless of how one chooses
to do so. That said, if we can simply encourage folks to stop and think
about the potential impacts and associated consequences of a particular action,
we can go a long way towards ensuring protection of our shared recreational
resources.

As we have thought through this issue we’re left
wondering what the future will bring in terms of technology, communication, and
outdoor recreation. Will posting pictures to social media be a thing of the past
in five years? None of us know. However, we do know that it is currently
contributing to some level of impact in the out-of-doors, which is something we
are actively addressing. Not only will we encourage responsible use of social
media but we will also embolden and inspire social media users to promote and
provide a message of Leave No Trace stewardship with any and all relevant post
about the outdoors. Social media, if used the right way, is a powerful tool that
can motivate a nation of outdoor advocates to enthusiastically and collectively
take care of the places they cherish.

Please know that we are actively working to address
the intersection of social media and the outdoors through the appropriate
channels. As such, we welcome further input, discussion, and constructive
feedback.

Again, we appreciate your sincere commitment to Leave
No Trace. It is individuals like you who are making a real difference for our
shared lands.

Chris Carvalho has a Bachelor of Science degree in chemical
engineering from the University of California at Berkeley. He is a photographer
and blogger on public policy, environmental, and conservation topics.

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